Fit Life

Am I too old to exercise?

September 28, 2011

If you’ve ever thought you aren’t standing as straight and tall as you once did, find walking up a flight of stairs to be a strain at times, or you groan when reaching for the arms of a chair as you slowly get up from sitting, you aren’t alone.

There are about 78 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964, with nearly 11 million of them working out in gyms throughout America.

Keep this in mind: “We don’t stop exercising because we get old, we get old because we stop exercising.”

Older adults hurt themselves more through INactivity than through activity. Strength, flexibility, balance and endurance wither from INactivity. Exercise will increase your healthy life-years and enable you to fully engage in life, adding years to your life and life to your years.

With definitive research demonstrating that activity helps forestall cognitive decline (dementia) and being fit keeps people healthier longer, it’s no wonder that more boomers are signing up for personal trainers, group exercise classes, boot camps, and walking groups.

Specifically, here are five types of exercise that promote mental alertness and compress disability into as late as life as possible. No, these don’t include cosmetic surgery, expensive skin care regimens or hormone replacement — they don’t have the staggering amount of research that exercise does.

Cardio: Moderately intense aerobic activity for a minimum of 30 minutes five times per week or, if you can engage in more vigorous aerobic exercise, do that three times a week for a minimum of 20 minutes. Walking, swimming, using a treadmill or elliptical, and biking are examples of cardio exercise.

Strength training: We lose 30% of our muscle strength between the ages of 50 and 70 years. Normally, adults who are sedentary beyond age 50 can expect muscle loss of up to 0.4 pounds a year. At least twice each week, engage in exercises designed to maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance, including resistance training with machines or free weights.

Flexibility training: Here’s where stretching and range of motion exercises become important to connective tissue, so regular stretching at least twice each week for at least 10 minutes each time is recommended.

Balance training: Musculoskeletal injuries are the number one reason people seek medical help, with falls among the leading causes of death for the 65+ population. Backward and sideways walking, heel walking and toe walking are all fun ways to increase balance. Consider using a workout ball or balance pad and have a professional trainer demonstrating proper form and exercise options.

Core training: These exercises strengthen your abs and other muscles that stabilize the spine, pelvis, and run the entire length of the torso. These muscles make it possible to stand, shift body weight and protect the back and hips. Exercises include abdominal bracing, contracting the abdominal muscles, plank exercises, hip lifts, and having fun with medicine balls, dumbbells, kettlebells, Bosu Balls, balance and wobble boards.

Michael Mantell earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and his M.S. at Hahnemann Medical College, here he wrote his thesis on obesity. He’s served as the Chief Psychologist of Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego and the Chief Psychologist for the San Diego Police Department. He provides breakthrough strategies to help business leaders, athletes, individuals and families create healthy, fit and happy trajectories in life. He is the Senior Consultant for Behavioral Sciences for ACE, an international behavior science fitness presenter, an Advisor to numerous companies and fitness organizations, on the Sports Medicine team of The Sporting Club of San Diego and is featured in many international media outlets. He is listed in the greatest.com 2013 “The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness.”

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